FBCB 2010 System Experimentation

[Radii]

Dynasty Goals

I'm doing this to practice for multiplayer more than anything. I coach a team at the top in FOFC FBCB (a high prestige UNC team with nearly maxxed out ratings). I want to get as good at recruiting as I can be, and I want to experiment with a few styles of teams to see if one fits me best, and to see if I can consistently recruit to one style successfully.

Background

I won a ton in the first version of the game by recruiting for the pressing/trapping system and by only caring about the steals rating. FBCB 2010 balanced that well so its not the only way to play anymore. Its also made recruiting more difficult (or maybe more random, its hard to say). When FBCB 2010 first came out I just kept recruiting the same way, STL > *. That worked ok, but over the last 5-6 seasons that's fallen apart for me, and I've just been recruiting the best players I can find.

What's going to happen here

I'm going to start at the top. I don't care about building up my coach or advancing through the ranks. I want to see if there is a style of play that gives me the best chance to win championships. I'm going to create a new league, create my high level coach at North Carolina, and play through a number of 50 season careers under the following guidelines:

-- Each career will have a singular recruiting focus that I follow for the entire 50 seasons (1-3 preferred ratings that I strive to excel in at the expense of nearly everything else). Examples are 3 point shooting teams (3PS focus), winning the turnover battle (HND/STL/BLK focus, basically the old pressing and trapping game), defense and rebounding (DRB/PSD/PRD), etc.

-- I use the recommend button for training camp

-- I use the recommend button + minor tweaks for gameplanning.

-- I set my depth chart at the start of the season and leave it alone.

This is basically how I play in multiplayer. I tend to run 9-10 man rotations, mostly b/c of how I built my teams in the old version around high pace and pressing and trapping. This probably won't change. I might slow it down a little in a couple of these styles of play, but at a top school if I recruit decently well I should always have a deep bench and like to use it.


That's the setup. If you have a suggestion for a style of play that I'm not already planning (see the next post for more details on that), let me know.

[Radii]

Playstyle/Recruiting Plans for Each Career


Lockdown Defense

Primary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: PSD, DRB
Guards: PRD, STL

Secondary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: ORB, BLK
Guards: HND, PAS

SF's fall under the "guard" preferences here.

What this means is that for my bigs I must have good post defenders and defensive rebounds. These two ratings MUST be A or B. If that doesn't happen then assume there has been some sort of disaster in my recruiting process. If I end up with lots of targets who have similar ratings in Post Defense and Defensive Rebounding, then I'll look at offensive rebounding and shot blocking to decide who to prioritize.

Additionally, I reserve the right to balance these ratings out if I see fit. What that means is that I may well choose to recruit a guy who is B PSD/B DRB/B ORB/C BLK over a guy who is A PSD/A DRB/F ORB/F BLK. The goal here is more about having zero holes on my defense, adding a little balance if I can afford to, instead of blindly preferring 90 PSD to 80 PSD regardless of what else a player can do.

Expected Gameplan Notes

100% man to man. The pace may slow down a little here, but remember I'm going to be at a top school doing this, so if I do it right I'm still going to average on offense. I may press and trap some, but this is more about playing 40 minutes of stifling defense than it is about forcing turnovers. I would rather force the other team into difficult shots every possession than get lots of steals but allow layups when the press is broken.



Pressing and Trapping - Dominating the Turnover Battle

Primary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: BLK, PSD
Guards: STL, HND

Secondary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: DRB, HND
Guards: PAS, OFFENSE


Gameplan Overview

This is basically the classic original FBCB dominant strategy. The difference is that in the original game, I never once looked at a player's passing rating. I believe its a lot more relevant in this version, so I'm going to give it some attention.

Most of the ratings here are similar to the defensive one, but the results may be drastically different. I'm pretty comfortable with this system, if I play 50 seasons like this, I will probably lead the nation in steals in 40 of them. The goal is really about possessions more than it is about steals. When I'm on defense I want to end the possession as frequently as possible without allowing the other team to shoot (steals + blocks). When I'm on offense my primary concern is that I want to get a shot off every possession (ball handling, even as a secondary concern for bigs, and passing). Because in this version of the game I won't be getting 20 steals per game, I do need to be able to score a little out of the half court offense, so for my guards a secondary concern is some kind of offense. I don't care if its the ability to drive, shoot jumpers, or shoot the 3... just have a little bit of a threat here and there.


3 point shooting

Primary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: PSD, DRB
Guards: 3PS

Secondary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: INS, BLK
Guards: HND, JPS


gameplan notes

I've accidentally ended up with something like this in multiplayer in recent years. The 3PS preference for guards is much more strict here. When describing the other styles I said that I just don't want any holes at the primary areas, but I understand balance is important too. This is a little different. Every single PG, SG, and SF I put on the court, starters and backups, ideally they have A potential from behind the arc. Of course I'll recruit some A potential guys that come in a little worse than scouted... but ideally I'll have 6 guys at the smaller positions with 3PS ratings above 80 once this gets going. Past that, the goal is to just find decent balance elsewhere.


High Motion Offense

Primary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: HND, PAS (??)
Guards: HND, PAS

Secondary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: DRB, PSD
Guards: PRD, OFFENSE


gameplan notes

I don't know if its realistic to focus that heavily on ball handling and passing for bigs. Maybe just ball handling and then make sure the guy can also at least rebound or defend. I'm also not going to go crazy here and expect my bigs to be A HND/A PAS. The idea is more that I want all of my backcourt players to be very good handling and passing, and I want to make sure none of my bigs have stone hands to kill the fluidity of the offense if he ever touches the ball. So most likely in reality my big men will be pretty balanced overall, but I want them all to have C HND at least, and maybe C HND/C PAS.

I'd love to see this team run with a motion of 10, I've never done this though so I dunno how it will work. I'm not trying to run the Princeton offense here, so I don't want the pace too low, but I need it low enough that we allow time to find an open shot through ball movement. I'm imagining a pace of 5/motion of 10 every year, with all the rest of the gameplan settings varying based on secondary ratings. Since there is no defense in any of the primary ratings here I expect the game will recommend some zone for me. I may or may not take that recommendation some years. I expect to have decent enough defenses with PSD/PRD as a secondary stat to stick with man to man here.



Offensive Juggernaut

Primary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: INS
Guards: JPS, INS

Secondary Recruiting Ratings

Big Men: DRB, PSD
Guards: 3PS, HND


gameplan notes

We're gonna score a lot. Similar to the 3 point shooting plan, the only thing I priortize for my bigs here is inside scoring. I want A INS for every center and power forward I recruit. Other stuff is all secondary. For my guards I want them to be able to pull up and shoot or to drive to the basket. Maybe I'll make room for one guy who can spot up from 3 as well, or maybe that'll just be a secondary thing and I'll have guys who are acceptable, but not great, 3 point shooters everywhere.

This team won't be able to defend to save its life. But we're gonna run, and I'm going to put 9 guys out on the floor who can score every time they touch the ball. High pace, medium at best motion, this is where we may play a lot of 2-3 zone because there isn't going to be a whole lot of focus on defense.


That's all I got for now. Like I say if anyone has any suggestions past this let me know. My main goals here are to see if any of these systems are easier to recruit towards than others, and if any of them seem to allow for more success on the court.

[Radii]

reserved for results summaries

[Radii]

reserved for more details results information

[Radii]

I'm using britrock's league file that contains all the conference re-alignment insanity that's going on. From the ACC perspective this means Louisville, Notre Dame, Pitt, and Syracuse are in, Maryland is out. I cannot completely explain my disgust that this is where college basketball has gone in the real world, but its the setup we use in our online league play, so I'm using it here too.

Here's my starting coach:

COACH DETAILS

 Richard Dixon - Head Coach - North Carolina
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Age:             36
 High School:     Wake Forest Rolesville
 Hometown:        Wake Forest, NC
 Alma Mater:      Georgia Tech
 
 Current Level:   13
 Career Record:   0 - 0
 
 Recruiting:      100
 Scouting:        60
 Offense:         100
 Defense:         100

 Job Movement:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season   Move
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2011     Hired by North Carolina (Head Coach)

Again, this is what my coach looks like in multiplayer. We're going to win games, we're going to be in the NCAA Tournament most years unless I completely screw up. The goal here will be to see if we can establish a different level of dominance with some specific style of players.

The starting roster is irrelevant. Its a quality roster, but I'm going to be recruiting only and ignoring everything else for 3 seasons before I start caring about my lineups.

[Izulde]

Curious to see how this works. I admit, I've never tried implementing Jestorball in FBCB so I don't know if it'd work there.

[Marmel]

I have 100's of seasons of experience with the lock down defense. I have found it to be the best way to build a team up. I think you can get regular season success way beyond what your overall talent level would predict. You may even be able to pull an upset or two in the tournament, but once you are an established team and your goal is to win the whole thing, you have to integrate offense into the recruiting game plan or you will become frustrated with the early flameouts in the tournament.

[Young Drachma]

Hmm...

[Radii]

Ohai. I started this up in between games, felt pretty gung ho about getting it going, and then picked up a new game the next day, I still want to do this but I'm not sure when I'm going to take the time to get it rolling.

[Jeff W]

Interesting idea even if you never got going.

How do you recruit for PSD/PRD in this game, though? Do you need a good scout or is there something I'm missing in the stats that correlates to PSD/PRD? I've been running something similar to the Offensive Juggernaut, except I recruit guards with high 3PS over JPS.

[Balldog]

If you have a good scout you should be fine. Usually within a grade level for accuracy at least. I only use stats for hidden gems with little success.

Scout > Stats

Stats are relevant though. Stats help if you are a small school with limited budget.

[Jeff W]

Originally Posted by Balldog

If you have a good scout you should be fine. Usually within a grade level for accuracy at least. I only use stats for hidden gems with little success.

Scout > Stats

Stats are relevant though. Stats help if you are a small school with limited budget.

Ah I see, I've only played with bottom-feeder schools and low level HCs, so I've had a lot of success ignoring scouting and relying on stats. Usually a combination of national ranking+stats gives me a good idea of a player's abilities with the exception of PRD/PSD.

[Young Drachma]

That's good to know, because I really sort of hate the ratings situation and would love to use national rankings + stats to scout instead.

This makes me want to fire the game up and do my own testing, because I really do just throw things against a wall and hope it sticks, I never intentionally try to recruit anything other than the best of what I can find.